With the PS3 launch looming, the marketing push here in Australia is starting to pick up steam. Harvey Norman, one of the country's leading electronics retailers, is among the big guns promoting the console.

As you can see above, at their Bondi Junction store in Sydney they've even got a unit in-store.

Or...do they?

A little peek behind the PS3 reveals...oh, wait, it's not a PS3! Of course not, silly, no store in Australia has actual demo units. It's just a cardboard cut-out of a PS3. How devious. Still, it looks like there's something behind that facade...

There is. There's more than meets the eye, even. Is...is that what I think it is?

Well bugger me. It's a Microsoft Xbox 360. A 360 dressed up as a PS3. Console cosplay, if you will. But why would a 360 be tarted up, rather shoddily, may I add, as a PS3? I'd better ask Chris, the Bondi store's manager:

Yeah, we had that hooked up yesterday. It was running a DVD showing what the PS3 can do, explaining the controls and stuff, as well as some footage of some PS3 games. But we had to take it down this morning.

What a novel marketing strategy. PS3 demo reels being run on 360s. I bet Sony Australia are thrilled. Luke Plunkett

UPDATE: The Sydney Morning Herald reported on this story earlier today, saying Sony Australia rep Adrian Christie thought the news was very "alarming".

"I would have a really big problem if they were in any way deceiving people by pretending that it was PS3 content", he says. Uh...well the store manager says it was running PS3 demos, for games, the Sixaxis and the console itself. I'd call that "PS3 content".

PS3 kiosk, can you spot the 360? [Xbox360fanboy]

Send an email to the author of this post at plunkett@kotaku.com.